Free Republic

China's Appetite For High-Flying Gold To Dominate Wed Dec 2, 2009 4:30am EST By Chikako Mogi SHANGHAI, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Gold's successive run-ups to record highs are underpinned by hopes for central banks to further diversify reserves, particularly China's, a topic set to dominate a two-day industry gathering in Shanghai from Thursday. News that the central bank of India bought 200 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund, about half of what was on offer, reinforced views that gold has established its status as an investment asset, as well as an alternative currency. The move also strengthened speculation...

I am wondering if this scenario makes any sense. Say you are one of the liberal presidents, prime ministers, Governors, Rulers, or Commanders... etc of the many "developed" countries around the world.

LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - China, India, Brazil and South Africa oppose setting a goal of halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at a Copenhagen climate conference starting next week, European diplomats said on Wednesday. A document by the four big developing nations also said they opposed setting a goal of a global peak in emissions by 2020 and a target of limiting global warming to a maximum of 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, they said. "The paper is defensive. It lays out the red lines for those emerging economies," one European diplomat with knowledge of the...

NEW DELHI/LONDON (Reuters) – China and other big developing nations rejected core targets for a climate deal such as halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 just five days before talks start in Copenhagen, diplomats said on Wednesday. China, the world's top emitter, together with India, Brazil and South Africa demand that richer nations do more and have drawn "red lines" limiting what they themselves would accept, the diplomats told Reuters. The four rejected key targets proposed by the Danish climate talks hosts in a draft text -- halving global greenhouse gases by 2050, setting a 2020 deadline for a...

During a recent visit to Tokyo, Timothy Geithner, the secretary of the US treasury, said that a strong dollar is "very important" to Washington, even as the American currency continued its noticeable depreciation. This is a very curious statement as it seems to indicate that the US treasury is going to defend the dollar from any further slide in the near future. But this is highly unlikely as the US treasury does not have a history of intervening in foreign exchange markets. It is true that the treasury's Exchange Stabilisation Fund (ESF) can be used to prop up the dollar,...

Andy Xie explains to the Financial Times how the Chinese government is well aware of China's current bubble, and are in fact nurturing it. Maybe because they don't really have any other choice -- Andy Xie likens it to riding a tiger, if you get off it could kill you. When the U.S. dollar bottoms, it will cause money to flow substantially out of China. This is when the correction will come. But... it is probably a couple of years away. China is careful not to prick their bubble, in fact their aim is to prolong it. The government does...

Woman Sets Self On Fire To Protest Demolition Of Home by Fauna on November 30, 2009 From Mop: A female entrepreneur in Chengdu sets herself on fire on the roof of her building because of demolition Summary: November 13, early morning, a horrific “eviction and demolition” incident occurred on Tianhuizhen street in Jingniu district of Chengdu city. The female owner tried to use death to fight the go-vern-ment organized demolition crew, eventually “self-immolating” on the building’s roof, burnt beyond recognition, her life hanging by a thread. Whether it is residents being arrested, residents being hurt and hospitalized, the go-vern-ment department...

Govt-backed gay bar fails to attract customers By Guo Anfei in Dali and Shan Juan in Beijing Updated: 2009-12-02 07:38 The idea was simple: Set up a bar to attract gay men and then use it to distribute information on AIDS/HIV prevention. The media loved the idea -- but all the attention kept the gay men away. "They (gay men) refused to show up at the opening for fear of media exposure and potential discrimination," said Zhang Jianbo, the bar's founder and a local AIDS doctor in Dali, Yunnan province. The bar, partially funded by the Dali Health Bureau in...

/begin my excerpts Chinese official: China should increase its gold holdings to 10,000 tons Financial Crisis Alerts China to Protect the Foreign Exchange Reserve China Youth Daily By Wang Lei “We recommend that China’s gold reserve should reach 6000 tons in 3~5 years, and probably reach as high as 10,000 tons in 8~10 years,” according to Ji Xiaonan on November 28 at the third Chinese Industry Stability Forum. He is the head of the supervisory committee at the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. This was what he said regarding when gold should be included as a key component for...

India has blocked service to all mobile phones without a valid identity code, as part of anti-terrorist measures being implemented by the Indian government. On Monday, any handset without a valid International Mobile Equipment Identity (Imei) code had its connection cut off, according to the Indian Cellular Association (ICA), which represents mobile operators in the country. The mobile industry is complying with a government directive that arose after discussions between Indian security agencies and the Indian Department of Telecommunications, the ICA added. The Imei, a 15-digit number printed inside a phone, can be used to identify a particular device on...

As Bug Fighting Goes Year Round, Fans Bemoan Role of Performance-Enhancing Drugs, Money Like the baseball calendar in the U.S., China's cricket-fighting season is getting longer and longer. Purists fret that the pastime is being threatened by a money culture. Helping lead the effort to upend thousands of years of Chinese tradition is Xu Moxiao, a man determined to lengthen the customary autumn fighting season. He thinks year-round bug fights are better for fans and for the people who make money off the sport. "What I'm doing is trying to expand the good things," says Mr. Xu. Cricket fighting has...

Animators re-create Tiger Woods' auto crash and the events leading up to it. Please click on the YouTube link to see the video. Assuming this was accurately described in the Tweet sent to me as being Chinese, any Chinese-speaking FReepers' interpretation of this would be sincerely welcomed, as would any other interpretations, of course ;-)

The world has changed; but China has not. China has responded to the world financial crisis with what seems to be great success. But this is an illusion. China’s solution – a surge in spending on investment – will create greater excess capacity. China’s high-savings, high-investment economy is costly for its people and destabilising for the world. The time for a radical reform is long past. In a disturbing new report, the European Chamber of Commerce in China lays out the challenge in six sectors: aluminium, where the capacity utilisation rate is forecast to be 67 per cent in 2009;...

The United States is about to lose a key arms-control tool from the closing days of the Cold War -- the right to station American observers in Russia to count the long-range missiles leaving its assembly line. The end of full-time, on-site access will likely ignite complaints in Congress, with insiders from both parties arguing over whether the George W. Bush or the Obama administration is responsible.

Next year China and India will celebrate six decades of diplomatic relations. A whole range of festivities is planned. The border war of 1962 was the nadir of the relationship. However, things have improved greatly since the 1980s. There are now regular high level political meetings; bilateral trade turnover next year may reach $60 billion; boundary demarcation talks have been underway since 2003, and there have been two joint military exercises designed to combat terrorism. Nevertheless, the two Asian giants do not really trust one another. India is particularly concerned about the Chinese military build-up in Tibet and along the...

Shanghai HIV cases on the increase Cai Wenjun SHANGHAI reported 886 new HIV carriers and 392 AIDA patients, with 25 fatalities, from January to November 20 this year, the city's Health Bureau said yesterday. The release of statistics yesterday comes ahead of World AIDS Day today. Cases positive to HIV tests were 26.5 percent more than for the same period last year. People from outside Shanghai accounted for 72 percent of this year's new HIV cases, while Shanghainese covered 60.5 percent of the new AIDS patients. People younger than 45 and men covered the majority of HIV/AIDS cases registered this...

China may beat India in gold consumption Updated: 2009-12-01 11:20 Counter:885 China is showing an unending appetite for the yellow metal and its production is set to record a new high this year. According to newspaper reports, the country's gold demand might be more than 450 tonnes this year, up from 395,6 tonnes last year, and output might climb to 310 tonnes, compared with 282 tonnes a year earlier. China overtook South Africa to become the world's largest gold producer in 2007. The World Gold Council (WGC) said in July China might pass India as the biggest consumer. Bullion touched...

[Editor’s Introduction: Dissent among university students has long been a top source of concern for China’s ruling authorities. On October 31st China's education minister Zhou Ji was demoted amid widespread dissatisfaction with the system. That day China Central Television reported "eight malpractices in China's educational sector" including school enrollment favoring the wealthy, arbitrary fees, rampant plagiarism, and huge resources allocated to a few students to achieve high exam scores. Meanwhile, in the official Nanfang Daily’s self-evaluation poll this week Guangzhou officials in charge of education awarded themselves 98 out of 100 points, while counterparts from nearby cities, including Shenzhen, gave...

A UN investigation has concluded that North Korea is continuing to export weapons, and using the hard currency obtained to import luxury items for the ruling elite of the communist police state. The UN report detailed North Korean use of false documents and the switching of cargo containers to different ships to throw off investigators. The North Koreans have also had to come up with a large array of subterfuges to get around growing restrictions on their use of the international banking system. The North Koreans are still getting the weapons out, and the money back. But they are increasingly...

Chinese aero manufacturers open up to engage export market By Reuben F Johnson 30 November 2009 Over the last month China's National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC), the state-licensed aircraft export sales monopoly, along with its industrial partner, Aviation Industries of China, have both demonstrated an unusual degree of openness in displaying data on their products. This willingness of Chinese officials to speak at length on both of these areas seems to have coincided with the 60th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) on 11 November. China's military aircraft industry has been steadily developing a line...

Is the United States in inexorable economic decline, destined to be overshadowed by an emerging Chinese economic superpower? This seems to be a popular view among commentators of various political persuasions. I am happy to report, however, that America's economic demise is not around the corner. One of the most frequently cited examples of American economic decline, particularly from those on the Right, is the decline of the manufacturing sector (which now accounts for only about 12% of GDP). I remember hearing the argument that we are economically weak because "we don't make things here anymore" as far back as...

Last week a Department of State retiree and his wife were arrested and charged with spying for Cuba for thirty years. In this article I will sort out what we know, don't know and need to explore about this matter. Walter Kendall Myers, Jr .and his wife Gwendolyn Steingarber Myers

Female applicants for the army are being asked to showcase their talents in an interview process never before used and exclusively for women. Aspiring female officers were surprised to learn from Wednesday last week that they are now required to perform a 'talent' as part of the country's current recruitment drive for the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The test of artistic ability was included for the first time as part of the standard face-to-face interview by recruiters on behalf of the PLA, which took place following stringent health screenings over recent weeks. "I was shocked by the new talent show...

Russian President, Dmitry Medvdev, has sent a security proposal to European security agencies, including NATO and the EU. The draft calls for all nations that agree, to the final writing, will follow the principle “indivisible, equal and undiminished security”. The proposal includes these few ideas of joint security. “That parties do not undertake, support or participate in actions that can jeopardize the security of another party to the treaty". The sides also agree not to allow the use of its territory with the purpose of attacking their partners. The draft suggests that every party to the agreement is entitled to...

World’s first anti-ship ballistic missile could prevent US from protecting Taiwan. Internet censorship came up, as did global warming and trade sanctions. But one subject that was not raised – publicly at least – before US President Barack Obama left Beijing for South Korea today was China's apparent attempt to scare the US Navy out of the western Pacific Ocean.

China's military is close to fielding the world's first anti-ship ballistic missile, which could turn the Pacific Ocean region close to China into a "no-go" zone for the US fleet, Bloomberg on Tuesday cited a report from the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) as saying,

November 29, 2009 ECONOMIC VIEW Dangers of an Overheated China By TYLER COWEN PRESIDENT OBAMA’S recent trip to China reflects a symbiotic relationship at the heart of the global economy: China uses American spending power to enlarge its private sector, while America uses Chinese lending power to expand its public sector. Yet this arrangement may unravel in a dangerous way, and if it does, the most likely culprit will be Chinese economic overcapacity. Several hundred million Chinese peasants have moved from the countryside to the cities over the last 30 years, in one of the largest, most rapid migrations in...

  Chinese Prisons More Modern & Luxurious Than Schools by Tingting on November 25, 2009 From Mop:China’s prisons are more modernized than our rural elementary schoolsWhere is this? The White House? No, this is Jiansu Province Yancheng Prison.Such luxurious office for the Jiansu Province prison, unless they are for meeting the family of VIP inmates, or to show off the extent of China’s human rights?Anybody dares to say that Jiansu Province Prison’s architecture style isn’t a great fusion of traditionalist and modernist elements?The basketball court for Jiansu Province Prison is so big, not many universities in China have one like this. It is going...

World powers united in condemnation of Iran's nuclear activities yesterday in a rare show of international consensus on the threat posed by Tehran's continued nuclear defiance. China and Russia joined the United States, Britain, France and Germany in backing an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution censuring Iran and ordering it to halt construction of a secret uranium enrichment plant. The resolution, the first since February 2006, passed with 25 votes and six abstentions. Only Malaysia, Venezuela and Cuba supported Iran. ...China, which has shared Moscow's reluctance to take a hard line with Tehran, was reportedly persuaded to support the resolution...

Dubai is asking creditors to accept a six-month suspension on debt repayments for its severely cash-strapped conglomerate Dubai World. The government of the Gulf emirate has also appointed consultants Deloitte to restructure state-run Dubai World's operations. The group includes property developer Nakheel, which built one of the state's most ostentatious projects, the palm-shaped, man-made residential islands of the Palm Jumeirah. The conglomerate also includes DP World, owner of the former P&O ports operator. According to Nakheel, Dubai World has $59bn (£35bn) of liabilities, a large proportion of Dubai's total debt of $80bn (£47bn). The emirate's government said in a statement:...

DALI, China — Justin Franchi Solondz, an environmental activist from New Jersey who spent years evading charges of ecoterrorism in the United States by hiding out in China, was sentenced to three years in prison by a local court on Friday on charges of manufacturing drugs in this backpacker haven. After serving his time, Mr. Solondz, 30, who is on the F.B.I.’s wanted list, will be deported to the United States, where he faces charges stemming from what the authorities say was his role in an arson rampage that destroyed buildings in three western states as a member of a...

BBC's reliable alarmist Richard Black tells us that the path has just been cleared for Obama's nervous lurch to commit the U.S. politically to Kyoto II energy-use reduction in the name of catastrophic man-made global warming (talk about doubling-down on the tone-deaf, after the job-killing health-care effort in the face of a recession and anxiety about employment). The reason, we are informed, is not only because of Obama's apparent response to ClimateGate, but the Chinese have committed to an "ambitious" emission reduction of their own!That's spin. China offers a non-binding promise to increase its emissions not beyond a certain rate...

Thanks to a belief in its flu-repellent powers, garlic traders are on course to get stinking rich this year http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/forget-gold-and-silver-invest-in-garlic-1828755.html

WASHINGTON: Bull in a China shop is not an expression one would normally use to describe India’s mild-mannered Prime Minister, but at a Washington think-tank on Monday evening Manmohan Singh was anything but delicate on India’s newly nettlesome neighbor before an audience that is largely in thrall of the Middle Kingdom’s meteoric rise on the global stage. In candid remarks that were keenly scrutinized in the context of New Delhi’s niggling troubles with Beijing and US overtures to the country, Dr Singh offered an Indian perspective on rising China that included an admission that lately, ''there is but a certain...

China appears to be having success in using diplomacy to disarm Taiwan (which it considers a rebellion province, and threatens to take by force, if peaceful means fail.) For decades, China has been putting economic and diplomatic pressure on other nations to prevent them from supplying Taiwan with weapons. Even the U.S. has constantly been pressured, despite the fact that there is a three decade old American law that mandates U.S. sales of weapons to Taiwan. But China has leaned on the U.S. despite that law, and has succeeded in stalling Taiwanese efforts to buy 66 more F-16 fighters. While...

Chinese regulators have told their banks that they will have to make plans to raise capital or they may face restrictions on lending. Bank lending, which rose by an unprecedented $1.3 trillion (£785bn) in the first nine months of the year, was the main source of an emergency stimulus deployed by Beijing in 2009. But the lending spree is now worrying the government. The surge in new loans has resulted in the banks' core capital adequacy ratios plunging from just 10% last year to 8.8%, a record rate of decline, according to Credit Suisse. What the commentators said The news...

DALI, China — Justin Franchi Solondz, an environmental activist from New Jersey who spent four years evading charges of ecoterrorism in the United States by hiding out in this backpacker haven, was convicted by a Chinese court on Friday of manufacturing drugs. After serving a three-year sentence, Mr. Solondz, 30, who is on the F.B.I.’s most wanted list, will be deported to the United States, where he faces charges stemming from what the authorities say was his role in an arson rampage that destroyed buildings in three western states as a member of a group related to the environmental extremist...

A Chinese court sentenced the pastor and leaders of a 50,000-member megachurch in northeastern China to prison, rights groups reported Thursday. Pastor Wang Xiaoguang of Linfen Fushan Church in Linfen, northern Shanxi province received three years for “illegal land occupation” and his wife Yang Rongli received a maximum of seven years for “illegal land occupation” and “assembling a crowd to disrupt public order," according to ChinaAid Association. Other church leaders received three- to four-and-a-half-year prison sentences. The sentences are among the most severe for house church leaders in recent years. “To punish an innocent house church leader with seven years...

A top Chinese climate envoy said Friday only emissions curbs carried out under its newly announced carbon intensity targets that have international financial support will be open to outside scrutiny. Yu Qingtai, China's climate change ambassador, added that most of the country's emissions-curbing plans would likely not fall into the category of "measurable, reportable and verifiable." The phrase, agreed in international talks three years ago, implies third-party checks would be made on any reported reductions. "Actions would be measurable, reportable and verifiable if (international) support is measurable, reportable and verifiable," Yu told reporters at a briefing. "If you look at...

Growing military ties between China and Pakistan are a serious concern to India, Defense Minister A.K. Antony said on Friday, in the latest display of a prickly rivalry between New Delhi and its neighbors.

A computer worm that China warned Internet users against is an updated version of the Panda Burning Incense virus, which infected millions of PCs in the country three years ago, according to McAfee. The original Panda worm, also known as Fujacks, caused widespread damage at a time when public knowledge about online security was low, and led to the country's first arrests for virus-writing in 2007. The new worm variant, one of many that have appeared since late 2006, adds a malicious component meant to make infection harder to detect, said Vu Nguyen, a McAfee Labs researcher. "It has gotten...

A pair of papers in the American Journal of Human Genetics today are highlighting the genetic and genomic variation present within the Han Chinese population. In the first of these papers, a Genome Institute of Singapore-led team developed a genetic map of the Han Chinese population by genotyping thousands of individuals from across China. The genetic variation they detected is providing insights into Han Chinese population structure and evolutionary history — for instance, revealing North-South population structure in China. And down the road, researchers say, the results should pave the way for genome-wide association and other studies in the population."By...

On Nov. 23, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, Beijing's bank regulator, ordered Chinese lenders to formulate long-term fundraising plans. Those banks with "relatively low" capital adequacy ratios and without "practical" plans would face restrictions on further growth relating to market entry, outbound investment, new branches and "business expansion." Chinese investors were rattled. On the following day, the Shanghai Composite Index plunged 3.45% on record turnover. Shares of the four largest Mainland banks listed in Hong Kong were down as well. Bank of China fell about 4%. Bank of China, one of the so-called Big Four banks, increased its loan book...

* China approves pest-resistant Bt strain as safe * Large scale production could start in 2-3 years * China also approved first GMO strain of corn (Adds background, detail, quotes)

Japan and China agreed on Friday to conduct their first joint military training exercise, in the latest sign of warming ties between the Asian neighbors, long marked by mutual suspicion and spats over a range of issues.

This autumn, China and the U.S. began moving toward greater cooperation in space. As China lifted a little more of the veil covering its space program, U.S. officials expressed a greater desire to work together in exploring space. Presidential science adviser John Holdren floated the idea of increased cooperation in human spaceflight last spring. The Augustine committee raised the idea again, and Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao pledged to deepen space cooperation last week . Unfortunately, there are ample reasons for the U.S. to keep its distance. While the U.S. explicitly decided to separate its space exploration activities from...

As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership tries to convince President Barack Obama and other world leaders that China is eagerly integrating itself with the global marketplace, the ultra-conservative norms and worldview of Chairman Mao Zedong are making a big comeback in public life. In provinces and cities that foreign dignitaries are unlikely to visit, vintage Cultural Revolution-era totems are proliferating. In Chongqing, a mega-city of 32 million people in western China, Mao sculptures—which were feverishly demolished soon after the late patriarch Deng Xiaoping catalyzed the reform era in 1978—are being erected throughout government offices, factories and universities. A newly...

On several occasions during my 10 days in China, I've been told that there are 70 million members of the Chinese Communist Party. And yet it's nearly impossible to find an orthodox Marxist in Beijing. When you stand in Tiananmen Square and look toward the Forbidden City, you see a huge portrait of Mao flanked by slogans. The slogans used to say things like "Long Live Marxism-Leninism." Today, they're simply nationalistic: "Long Live the People's Republic of China!" While class struggle and common ownership of property may have motivated the revolution, Mao's heirs are more interested in outcomes than process....

China, gold, and the civilization shift By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: November 26th, 2009 Stephen Jen from the hedge fund Blue Gold Capital has a warning for those who think that gold has risen far too high, is necessarily in a speculative bubble, and must soon come clattering back down. Mr Jen is an expert on sovereign wealth funds from his days at Morgan Stanley. The gold story — essentially — is that the rising economic powers of Asia, the Middle East, and the commodity bloc are rejecting Western fiat currencies. China, India, and Russia have all been buying...

CHINA announced its first targets for limiting carbon emissions last night, joining the US in revealing the stance it will take at next month's high-stakes climate summit in Copenhagen. China will cut the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product in 2020 by 40 to 45 per cent from 2005 levels, said a statement from the State Council, or cabinet. "This is a voluntary action taken by the Chinese government based on its own national conditions and is a major contribution to the global effort in tackling climate change," the statement said. The announcement marks the...